After a 6,000 signature petition signed by prominent architects, historians, and concerned citizens, the Italian Minister of the Environment, Corrado Clini scrapped the plan to build a 400-acre garbage dump near Hadrian's villa.
The municipal government in Rome has been trying to avoid a situation like the rubbish heaps in Naples every since its main rubbish collection facility, Malagrotta, filled up years ago. The location near Hadrian's villa was one of seven sites considered, but the only one that could be operational by the fall.
Italy's Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi and the director of Italy's High Council for Cultural Heritage, Andrea Carandini, had threatened to resign if the plan moved forward. Already in disrepair, areas of the villa are closed to visitors because of a lack of restoration funding.
The villa in Tivoli, 24 km from Rome, dates back to the second century AD and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Though the Undersecretary for the Environment, Tullio Fanelli, announced that Hadrian's Villa would be protected, they have not announced their second choice location for the dump.
